I'm feeling tender for us in this moment. This terrifying swelter is a lot. Caught in the sweaty nexus of our Earthly, (inter)national, and personal travails, how do we escape?
My own mind is pinging insessantly between new learning about how to better meet the literacy needs of my soon-to-be second class of third-graders, Mom's debilitating back pain, sweet Dad's retiring memory, how to best support our neuro-spicy nineteen-year-old's launch from high school into ____ [in case you can't see it, that is a very pregnant blank], personal care [walks with our woozle!], and local progressive efforts.
I visit DK multiple times per day looking for respite and solidarity. The comics and GNR are lifesavers! Cappy and Bill of Portland Maine, your insight and wit bring out the twinkle in my eyes. The moderators' kind, firm maintenance of the rules of the road is reassuring. Here in this space we insist on truth, reason, and civility.
I'm trying to be grateful for our passion here, but lately I find my heart squeezing into a shy, little fist as I peruse the titles. Some are so aggressively certain of what everyone else should think and do. Some days, after a particularly convincing post, I'm one of these some. But with election stress at an all-time high, I find these sparring diaries stressing me the f* out. So where's an overwhelmed Kossak to go?
A while back, someone on this platform recommended Simon Rosenberg's Hopium Chronicles. His free email updates have become a highlight of my digital life. I love his mix of respect for all in our caucus, along with data- and action-grounded positivity. From Simon's 7/17 email--
My ongoing advice to this community is to approach these coming days with respect - respect of the President, our nominee; respect of party leaders who are working to ensure that we can win the election; and respect of one another who today are not all on the same page. For those of you backing the President telling your fellow Democrats who continue to have doubts to stop it and get in line is counter-productive, insulting and corrosive. For those of you wanting the President to step aside recognize that the most likely scenario is that our ticket remains Biden-Harris and attacking him wounds him at a time we need to be building him and the Vice-President up. This current moment is not easy for us given the stakes but as I asked in my video think of yourself here as a leader, not just a citizen. Lead the party forward, show respect of views different than yours and work to bring us together not push us apart. Do the hard thing here not the easy thing. And the hard thing is to resist fighting with fellow Dems, publicly, right now, and keep putting our heads down and working; and commit to bring us all together as we head into our Convention in a few weeks. The only way we win is if we stay together.
Thank you for leading me to Hopium, fellow Kossaks. If anyone else is feeling in need of some reassurance, you might want to check out Simon Rosenberg's Hopium Chronicles.
I'm also grateful to be here in the midst of this spirited dialogue with you, this community of thoughtful, engaged citizens all fighting as best we know how to preserve and advance America's immense potential for good.
With love, respect, and hope, BMS